


Snow

by NEStar



Series: Home for the Holidays [1]
Category: Sanditon (TV 2019)
Genre: 12 Days of Sanditon, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Road Trips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-14
Updated: 2019-12-14
Packaged: 2021-02-18 08:29:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21791383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NEStar/pseuds/NEStar
Summary: Sidney eats Charlotte's cookie......cus this is a road trip fic and they are actual cookies.12 Days of Sanditon challenge, day 1
Series: Home for the Holidays [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1570330
Comments: 15
Kudos: 45





	Snow

Three Empty Seats Going To Sanditon Springs, NY, Leaving Early AM Dec. 14.

The flyer caught Charlotte’s eye. She had been forced to skip Thanksgiving and had written off the idea of home for Christmas since her car died over the summer, but Sanditon Springs…

She pulled up her map app. It was just over an hour east of home. She quickly texted the number listed at the bottom of the page.

“Hey, have you still got space? I’m from Willingdon. Also, I make prize winning cookies. Like, literal blue ribbons.”

Three hours later an answer came. "That got you the front seat."

* * *

It was the ass end of dawn, it was fucking cold, and Sidney just wanted to go.

The guy he was dropping in Angola was already in the car, happy to have the back seat and already spread out and sleeping.

Suddenly a little pixie of a girl popped up next to him. She had a huge smile and was holding a square Tupperware.

"Cookie girl?" He asked.

"I prefer Charlotte," she said.

He opened the hatch so she could toss her duffle bag in. "Let's get going."

* * *

Seven hours later they were pulling into the Angola rest stop. The first rest stop on the New York State Thruway and the place where Mark was getting dropped off.

Sidney unfolded himself from the backseat. He had driven for the first four hours, then Mark offered to take over so he switched into the back and alternated between sleeping and eating some truly amazing oatmeal raisin cookies and banana muffin tops Cookie Girl had brought.

The draw for the Angola stop was the fact that it was built between the East and West lanes of the highway, which meant you got to the nervana of bathrooms and coffee by means of a walkway over the traffic. So it was no surprise when, after visiting his needed locations, he texted Charlotte only to find out she was in the walkway.

Sidney started crossing the bridge and quickly spotted her. She was pressed against one of the glass walls, watching in rapt fascination at the traffic passing under.

“You good?” he asked.

She looked up at him, “We need to take a picture.”

“It’s a bridge.”

“Over the Thruway!”

And it wasn’t even a selfie, she stopped some random person and handed them her phone.

(In the weeks to come that picture, Charlotte poking him in the ribs to get a reaction, became one of his favorites)

* * *

They had another four hours of driving before they would reach Charlotte’s house and the gently curving gray of the Thruway quickly ate up most of that with easy driving, leaving them a chance to talk and eat the rest of Charlotte’s cookies. Sidney was, frankly, astonished to find out this small, sweet, girl was only one term away from getting a degree in Urban and Regional Planning with a co-degree in Entrepreneurship. He in turn had surprised her when he said that he was was also in the same year, with his undergrad in Interdisciplinary Business Management.

“What does that even mean?”

“It means I’ll be a professional boss.”

But then he told her about the time right after high school, when he ended up taking a summer job that stretched into five years and left him with a passion for international farming practices and ethical agribusiness management.

* * *

Little flurries of snow started falling as they passed Syracuse and was into a steady fall by the time Sideny pulled onto the exit ramp.

There was a McDonalds right at the exit so they stopped to use the bathroom and grab some food.

Charlotte offered to drive the rest of the way, since she knew this area and the country roads a little better.

It ended up being a wise choice; the snow turned the trip that should have been forty-five minutes into over two hours. 

Charlotte finally pulled his Subaru into a long tree covered driveway. When she stopped Sidney swore it was a Christmas Card. There was a large farmhouse with the windows glowing through the snow. The back door opened and a crowd of kids spilled onto the porch.

“Charlotte! Charlotte!” 

A man started to push through the children, telling them to go back inside and close the door, they were letting the heat out.

“Dad!” Charlotte launched herself out of the car.

Sidney walked to the back and pulled her bag out.

“You should grab your own,” her father called. “There’s a county wide travel ban.”

“I think I’ll be okay once I get to 12,” Sidney said.

“There are no plows going right now, not even on the bigger roads.” 

“Shit,” Sidney tried to keep his voice low but Charlotte’s father chuckled. Charlotte herself had come back to the car and was reaching in to grab his suitcase.

“You’re my ride back, Parker. I can’t let you crash.”

Sidney pushed the hatch down and sighed. It looked like he was staying over.


End file.
